When you think about marketing, the first thing that might come to mind is buying brand-new products and making spontaneous purchases. However, that’s only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to marketing to consumers. The vast majority of marketing takes place via email, and it’s a powerful, underutilized medium that you should be taking advantage of.
What is Email Marketing?
Email marketing is the practice of sending out regular emails to past, present, and potential customers to build and grow your business.
Traditionally, business owners have focused on attracting new customers with flashy ads in magazine or on the internet. However, with the rise of the email marketing platform, businesses can now engage with existing customers with targeted emails, highly personalized content, and special offers.
Why should you be using email marketing?
Email marketing is a proven way to grow a business and connect with customers. Here are just a few reasons why.
Cost Effective
Traditional marketing tactics, such as billboards and magazine ads, can be quite expensive. You may see a banner ad on the side of a website one day and, the next, you’ll be bombarded with advertising for a hot brand of clothing. The cost of getting that banner ad seen by a mere 50 people at the smallest is quite high, especially if you consider the fact that you’ve paid for that 50 person’s meal as well. With email marketing, you’ll know how many people you’ve reached and if they’ve opened your email or clicked on a link, meaning you know if your strategy has paid off or not.
Effective
The key to successful email marketing is to make sure that you’re connecting with your audience on a personal level. This can be accomplished by regularly sending out interesting and valuable content that will keep your readers engaged and interested in your brand.
Targeted
When you send out an email, you’ll have the opportunity to target specific groups of people. This is often accomplished with a lead magnet, CTA, or a combination of the two. A lead magnet is a piece of content, usually a free eBook or an educational whitepaper, that you use to get people to subscribe to your email list. The lead magnet gives you something of value to offer, drawing in potential customers who are more likely to be interested in your product or service.
A CTA is an incentive to subscribe to your email list. Unlike a lead magnet, a CTA does not provide you with any direct benefit. A good CTA will encourage your subscribers to do something, whether it’s visit your website or read an eBook. The idea is to get people to subscribe so that you can send them helpful content that they find valuable. You can also use CTAs on social media to drive people to click or tap on a link.
Engagement Driven
Unlike traditional marketing, which aims to generate sales and leads, the underlying goal of email marketing is to engage with your audience and encourage them to do business with you. To achieve this, you need to provide them with value through interesting and valuable content that they find useful. The key to successfully engaging with your audience and encouraging them to do business with you is to make sure that you’ve connected with them on a personal level first.
If you’re not sure where to start, begin by asking yourself these questions:
Who am I trying to connect with?
In marketing, we sometimes forget that there are other people involved beyond the customer, including the people behind the scenes whose job it is to make sure that the product or service is delivered on time and in the right quality.
You’ll want to make sure that you’re taking the time to understand who these people are and what they need to do in order to bring your product to life. It’s not enough to just know what you’re selling. You must understand the buyer’s journey and know what makes them tick. Additionally, you need to identify the specific groups, demographics, and psychographics that will be most interested in your product.
How will I communicate with my audience?
The way you communicate with your audience determines the level of engagement you can expect to get back. While email marketing can be more effective than traditional marketing, because it’s usually one-on-one, you can still use traditional methods, such as the “blast” email, to get the word out about your product or service.
If you’re worried that your small business won’t be able to afford a billboard, you can use social media to reach a larger audience. With a little planning and strategy, you can use social media to gain more publicity and, in turn, gain more customers. Alternatively, you can also use social media to follow and connect with other businesses that are doing well and that you could partner with.
Am I using the right channels?
If you’re just getting started, it’s important to test the waters with a few different channels before you dive in and commit to one. You can use social media to follow the trends and see what’s working and what’s not. Additionally, you can try different email marketing platforms to see which one works best for you.
As you get more experienced, you can pick your channels of choice and begin to see the results of your efforts. In the meantime, continue to try new things to keep up with the trends and establish yourself as an industry leader in your niche.
How can you use email marketing to connect with customers?
Once you’ve established your email marketing platform and started to accumulate a list of subscribers, you can begin to send them value-packed emails featuring helpful content curated from amongst your product range. This content can take many forms, from an informative blog post to an eBook, case study, or even a how-to video helping people to perform a certain task. Think of something that you know a lot about and are passionate about. That’s the kind of content that will make your subscribers come back for more.
To encourage subscribers to engage with your content, you can use a combination of a lead magnet and a CTA. A lead magnet gives you something of value while a CTA encourages your subscribers to do something. In this case, your lead magnet will be an educational piece on how to successfully do business in Australia. Your CTA will be an offer for a free consultation with one of your company’s attorneys to help your subscribers navigate the legalities of doing business in Australia.
Marketing to Different Groups Of People Via Email Marketing
If you’re marketing to a specific group of people, you have the choice of either tailoring the content to their needs or reaching out to a larger audience and trying to get as many people interested in your product or service as possible. If you want to reach a specific group of people, take the time to learn about their concerns and interests. This will help you to craft content that they’ll value and appreciate.
For example, if you are trying to market to small business owners, you could begin by creating a free guide outlining the dos and don’ts of starting and running a business. Although this content is valuable and will engage your audience, reaching out to a broader group of people and inviting them to join your mailing list could result in more subscribers.
Marketing to Younger Audiences Via Email Marketing
If you’re trying to gain more traction and discoverability with your product or service, launch a blog for your business. This can be as simple as a personal blog that you use to share your thoughts on entrepreneurship or digital marketing, or a more professionally minded blog that you use to disseminate useful content.
The great thing about a blog is that it offers a lot of flexibility when it comes to the content that you can distribute. You can write about almost anything that you can think of in terms of marketing, whether it’s technology, fitness, money, or even hobbies and interests. When someone stumbles upon your blog and decides to give it a read, you’ll have the opportunity to connect with them on a personal level and gain some useful information that you can incorporate into your own marketing strategy.
Use Video Marketing To Get Your Point Across
Video marketing is something that’s been around for a while but has only recently started to emerge as a viable alternative to traditional text-based content. Videos can be much more effective than text at getting a point across, especially if you want to educate or entertain your audience. Creating informative videos about your industry is a great place to start if you want to get your point across via video.